A man has been charged with hate crimes after prosecutors say he stabbed a 24-year-old transgender woman who fled a San Francisco bus to escape his taunts about her gender preference.
She received 10 stitches at a hospital and was released.
Brodes Wayne Joynes made his first appearance in court today, pleading not guilty to attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and other charges, including hate crime allegations. He remains in jail with bail set at $2 million.
Authorities say Joynes, 54, accosted Samantha Hulsey and another transgender woman aboard a public bus. The women got off the bus to escape Joynes, who is accused of flashing a knife while verbally abusing them.
“It was probably the most terrifying thing I've been through in my life. I didn't think I was going to come out alive,” Hulsey said.
Hulsey showed NBC Bay Area the stab wounds she suffered at the hands of a man police say specifically targeted her and her transgender partner as they rode a Muni bus home Saturday evening.
“The man started saying hateful things toward us and calling us names,” Hulsey said.
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Hulsey and her partner Rae Raucci tried to get off the bus, when they say the man pulled a knife and stabbed Hulsey.
”A hate crime is not just an attack on the victim, it's also an attack on our community and the values we embrace as San Franciscans,'' city District Attorney George Gascon said. “This is malicious and spiteful behavior that will be prosecuted aggressively.''
Activists say transgender women are the victims of a disproportionate number of violent crimes.
“Very simply, there remains a large fear of transgender people,'' said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York Anti-Violence Project, which tracks violent crime against the lesbian, gay and transgender communities nationally.
In 2013, the project reported 2,001 violent incidents directed at the community compared with 2,016 incidents reported in 2012.
The transgender women accosted in San Francisco on Saturday night said their assailant expressed anger with their gender preference, telling them he felt “defrauded'' by them because they were "pretending'' to be women.
